I did not plan to write a serious post for a while; events in the Netherlands have changed that. Though not well reported here the Dutch government has banned the slaughter of animals according to the rituals of Halal and Kosher. These are practices dictated by the religions of Islam and Judaism respectively. The argument appears to have been that the rights of religions are subservient to the will of the people - in this case the issue of cruelty to animals versus the right to practice ones faith according to long established rules.
On its own you may agree with the Dutch position. From what I can see they have not gone as far as banning the importation of animals or animal products that have been slaughtered according to Halal or Kosher rules somewhere else. If true , this is at least inconsistent.
Now that the precedent has been set, how long before the Dutch government decide to legislate against men-only priests in Roman Catholic or Orthodox Churches? There are dozens of ways in which this precedent is disturbing because it sets the state as controller over religious belief and freedom.
In the past we have seen many moral precedents in Holland end up on the statute books in many other European states over time. I really hope that this is not one of them.
There are few followers in Holland - it would be good to hear what you think.
Agreed but with reservation. The will of the people should always take precedence over that of belief, which is an individual issue. How faith is collectively practised is religion and, in institutionalising faith, allows the nutters to exercise some form of twisted credibility. Just look at Sean Connery's character in the 3rd Indiana Jones film slapping his "son" Shaying, "That'sh blashfemy, boy."
ReplyDeleteWhy I agree with you here is what you're alluding to is tradition and as an ex-serviceman I've seen this eroded by the misguided attempts of the ignorant to form some kind of level playing field at the expense of culture, history and tradition.
It's the same, however, as pensions where the rich and powerful set sections of both private public sector against one another - divide and conquer. You can't have it because they haven't got it. Sometimes a nation has some difficult choices to make.
The Doc